questions about doing 'eclectic' style DJing

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I've got a gig coming up to do a 'eclectic' 'selector' style dj set, and I"m kind of nervous about it. I've done plenty of dj gigs, but so far they've all been in dance/rave/club type environments where I played pretty much within one genre (techno, tech-house) and beatmatched everything, and where the intent was to keep people dancing. This upcoming gig is kind of a 'musical wallpaper' type thing, and while I'm really excited about doing it, I'm kind of at a loss, technique-wise. Do I let songs play out 100%, leave a tiny silent gap, and then fade the next song in? Should I drop in songs on the first beat, or start them from the intro? Some of the stuff I plan on playing, I could beatmatch together, should I? Should I organize the playlist so it slowly increases (or decreases) in BPM or should I randomize it more? I'm actually kind of scared by the whole prospect!

― tylero (tylero), Saturday, 17 September 2005 02:45 (twenty years ago)

I think if you can beatmatch it, then you should but if there's a good chance you'd screw it up (ie me mixing hiphop) then its better not to try.
For everything else I'd see what the crowd/audience etc is like and go from there. If theres not many people around then I think it's better to go with slower stuff and get faster the more people are there. Basically just judge from the crowd what to do, and enjoy yourself.

― Bn1 (Bn1), Saturday, 17 September 2005 03:00 (twenty years ago)

it seems more likely for an eclectic set there doesn't need to be as much emphasis on just keeping people dancing as there is with a strictly beatmatched set. i may be off, depending on your crowd. but generally there's more room for you to have some fun. pick some of your favorite songs, whatever they might be. also, its good to find parts of songs with long breakdowns, fades, or whatever, where the beat drops out, and you can use those sections to bring in a completely different beat. be careful, if the tempos are too far off it can still sound disjointed even without the beats. practice quick cutting from one song to another too...but this can harder than it sounds. and if there is room to beat match, definitely go for it- it's what you're comfortable with.

― viborgu, Saturday, 17 September 2005 03:15 (twenty years ago)

never ovepower the people having conversations in the room.

― Ian John50n (orion), Saturday, 17 September 2005 05:28 (twenty years ago)

If you use a pc laptop, and plan to prepare your mix before, i recommend you Mixmeister ( http://www.mixmeister.com/ ).

― snowballing (snowballing), Saturday, 17 September 2005 06:47 (twenty years ago)

But if you think the music you will play won't be that loud, Winamp + crossfades will do the trick for sure.

― snowballing (snowballing), Saturday, 17 September 2005 06:49 (twenty years ago)

never overpower the people having conversations in the room.
Sound advice ! In the same vein, go easy on loud spoken/sung vocals (i.e. hip hop) as their frequencies kind of overlap said conversations.

― blunt (blunt), Saturday, 17 September 2005 09:54 (twenty years ago)

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